The Bolivian Salt Flats

We crossed the border from Chile to Bolivia overland in a 4WD over 3-days. Our tour took us up to 5200m altitude, past volcanos, lagunas and wildlife before crossing the infamous Bolivian salt flats.

This 3-day tour came highly recommended, and while our experience was not without its complications, the highs outweighed the frustrations and it was an incredible experience.

Clearing Chilean customs

As alluded to in the previous blog post, step one of our tour was to get out of Chile. A simple part of the process, we assumed, which turned into 20+ hours spread over 2-days sitting and waiting outside of the Chilean customs in San Pedro de Atacama.

To recap, on day one of our tour we were picked up at 430am and driven around San Pedro de Atacama in a minivan before parking up outside the Chilean customs to wait for opening at 8am to then process our passports and exit Chile. We ended up waiting outside customs until after midday when we were advised that the border into Bolivia was closed and that we would have to try again tomorrow. On our second day's attempt to exit Chile, we found out that the border had been closed the previous day due to a multi-truck crash due to the snow and several fatalities. Fair enough, but perhaps would have helped with moral to have been advised this was the reason the border was closed - instead we were left in the lurch with no information.

Day two started the same; a 430am pickup and then waiting in the same minivan outside Chilean customs from 5am. Day two did however bring a great sense of hope among us all that we would get out of Chile and into our tour.

Ironically, I seem to have a sixth sense for bike races and events and while we were waiting outside customs (of course - where else would we be), the Atacama Challenge bike race came past with several hundred competitors racing down the main road heading out on stage 1 of 3. The competitors received a great roar of support from the tired, delusional and bored tourists all lining the main road outside of the Chilean customs, the bike race providing a brief distraction and excitement for all.

To spare the details, we waited until 1pm with still no progress on clearing customs. As a reminder, all we needed was a stamp from Chilean customs with our date of exit from the country - seemingly not a difficult task. About 1pm, we finally received our first communications; the system was down, no timeline on fixing it. Great. Waiting resumed, and on day 2 of us sitting in the dry desert heat, our patience was well and truly tested. Come 4pm, a sudden surge in activity outside the Chilean customs control and the system was back up and running. We were finally on the road just before 5pm - all of us just glad to finally be out of Chile.

We cleared the Bolivian customs seamlessly in less than 15min and transitioned from the minivan to the 4WD to commence our 3-day tour. To coin Bella's term; we had successfully "trauma bonded" from this experience, courtesy of Chilean bureaucracy.

3-days in a 4WD

The 3-day tour took us from the Chilean border, across the stunning natural wonders of the Bolivian mountains in a 4WD including the:

• Salvador Dalí desert.
• Polque hot springs.
• Spectactular altiplanic lagunas.
• Infamous Uyuni salt flats.

We were blessed with an incredible group for our tour, and having already "trauma bonded" on our first 1.5 days, we had a blast together and became great friends. We had Toby and Bella (UK), June (Dutch) and Fletcher (US).

Day one took us up to 5200m in altitude. Unfortunately, due to the Chilean customs faff (did I mention my despise?), we pretty much skipped most of the first day which was a bit of a bummer. We didn't get to soak in the hot springs, see the geysers or get much of a chance to admire the lagunas or spot the pink flamingos. We did have a beautiful sunset at one of the lagunas and got an even better view of the Milky Way. We pulled into our homestay about 10pm, shared a beer with the Germans, Portuguese and Brazilians in the other truck to celebrate getting out of Chile, then headed straight to sleep - exhausted from our back-t0-back 4am starts.

While we could feel the altitude topping out at 5200m and sleeping at 4200m, we had acclimatised well. Unfortunately, Julian (German from the other truck) hadn't and had a pretty bad bought of altitude sickness.

Day two took us past many rock formations, a canyon and high alpine quinoa farms. It was amazing to see these quinoa farms at such high altitude; certainly the food of the future as quinoa needs nothing other than water to grow, and can survive in very tough conditions. We stayed at a salt hostel that night; made entirely of salt (yes, I licked the walls to verify) and had a great time socialising with Portuguese, Germans and Brazilians from the other truck.

Infinity mirrors and optical illusions on the Uyuni Salt Flats

Our final day was another early start, with a 5am departure to get from our salt hostel out onto the Salt Flats for sunrise. This was our most anticipated day of the trip and it did not disappoint.

Given we were at the back end of rainy season, we got to experience the incredible phenomenon that the entire Salt Flats were covered in 5-15cm of water which made for one of the most spectacular sunrises I have ever seen. With no landmarks as far as the eye could stretch, the sunrise cast across the mirrored surface was stunning.

Given we were at the back end of rainy season, we also got to experience the infamous vast white of the Salt Flats themselves, without the water. We played around with some fun optical illusions before carrying on across the Salt Flats towards the township of Uyuni.

A moment for the dogs

To our utmost amazement, we stumbled across a dog-specific tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats. Sheer joy and laughter took over as we raced around trying to get photos of all the dogs dressed in their various outfits, equipped with booties and glasses for the conditions. Truly, the highlight of our 3-days.

Enter: Bolivia

The 3-day tour wrapped up in Uyuni with a look around the abandoned railway yard before we said good bye to our driver.

We enjoyed the sun and first cultural experiences of Bolivia hanging around Uyuni for the afternoon. We had Chinese with everyone from the two tour groups before everyone said their goodbyes.

Laura and I chose not to hang around Uyuni and instead jumped on our first infamous Bolivian overnight bus at 10pm to make the 8-hour journey north west to Sucre. However, as luck would have it, our night bus broke down at 3am in the morning about 3-hours from Sucre. After waiting on the side of the road for 1.5 hours before finally relocating to another bus with seats that didn't recline and no heating, we finally arrived in Sucre about 8am the next day - shattered.

I think we've exhausted our bad luck for now. So fingers crossed our travel is a bit more smooth going forward from here.

Despite the various factors overshadowing the 3-day tour from Chile to Bolivia, as I write this blog and think back to the experience, it will certainly be one of the most memorable parts of our trip.

Up next; Bolivia!